The document discusses the battle between the flesh and spirit within Christians. It notes that while Christians still sin due to their fleshly nature, the spirit has conquered through Christ. The spirit provides victory over sin for those who walk by it rather than their flesh. Christians now have freedom and can please God by living according to the spirit and its fruit, rather than the desires of the flesh. The spirit within believers gives them life and power to overcome their sinful flesh.

1. The War Within
Roman 7:1-25
The Spirit vs. the Flesh

2. Three reasons why Christians Sin
• The Tempter persuades us – Satan/Devil
• Our surroundings entangle us - World
• There is a battle within us – Flesh vs. Spirit

3. Our Biggest Battles:
• Are not against Satan
• Is not the world
• It is Within

4. We are sinners
• Romans 3:9-22 (NET)
9
What then? Are we better off? Certainly not, for
we have already charged that Jews and Greeks
alike are all under sin, 10
just as it is written: “There
is no one righteous, not even one, 11
there is no
one who understands, there is no one who seeks
God. 12
All have turned away, together they have
become worthless; there is no one who shows
kindness, not even one.”

5. We are sinners
13
“Their throats are open graves, they deceive
with their tongues, the poison of asps is
under their lips.” 14
“Their mouths are full
of cursing and bitterness.” 15
“Their feet are
swift to shed blood, 16
ruin and misery are
in their paths, 17
and the way of peace they
have not known.” 18
“There is no fear of
God before their eyes.”

6. We are sinners
19
Now we know that whatever the law says, it
says to those who are under the law, so that
every mouth may be silenced and the whole
world may be held accountable to God. 20
For no one is declared righteous before him
by the works of the law, for through the law
comes the knowledge of sin.

7. We are sinners
21
But now apart from the law the righteousness
of God (which is attested by the law and the
prophets) has been disclosed – 22
namely, the
righteousness of God through the
faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who
believe. For there is no distinction, 23
for all
have sinned and fall short of the glory of
God.

8. The Faithfulness of Christ
• Saves believers from the consequences of
sin
– We are not condemned (Death/Hell)
– We are clothed in the righteousness of
Christ
• Gives us the help to fight our battles with
sin (the Spirit).

9. But Sin is not Eradicated
• Christians sin.
• Therefore, Christians are sinners.
• The Spirit and our Flesh (the location of our
Sin nature) are at war.

10. There is a War within
• Romans 7:14-17 (NET)
14
For we know that the law is spiritual – but I
am unspiritual, sold into slavery to sin. 15
For I
don’t understand what I am doing. For I do not
do what I want – instead, I do what I hate. 16
But
if I do what I don’t want, I agree that the law is
good. 17
But now it is no longer me doing it, but
sin that lives in me.
kalos, “beautiful, noble,
excellent,”

11. There is a War within
• 18
For I know that nothing good lives in
me, that is, in my flesh. For I want to do
the good, but I cannot do it. 19
For I do
not do the good I want, but I do the very
evil I do not want! 20
Now if I do what I
do not want, it is no longer me doing it
but sin that lives in me.

12. There is a War within us
• 21
So, I find the law that when I want to
do good, evil is present with me. 22
For I
delight in the law of God in my inner
being. 23
But I see a different law in my
members waging war against the law of
my mind and making me captive to the
law of sin that is in my members.
Not the Mosaic Law, but this
principle drawn by experience.

13. There is a War within – we will be
rescued
24
Wretched man that I am! Who will
rescue me from this body of death? 25
Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ
our Lord! So then, I myself serve the
law of God with my mind, but with my
flesh I serve the law of sin.
The new nature is called “the law” of the
“mind” because it has the capacity for
perceiving and making moral judgments

14. Is there no hope for victory now?
Must we wait until Christ’s return to
have victory over our sinful nature?

15. The War has been won.
• Romans 8:1-11 (NET)
1
There is therefore now no condemnation for those
who are in Christ Jesus. 2
For the law of the life-giving
Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of
sin and death. 3
For God achieved what the law could
not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By
sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and
concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4
so that
the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled
in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but
according to the Spirit.

16. The Spirit that raise Christ is our
source of victory over our sinful
nature.
• 5
For those who live according to the flesh have
their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but
those who live according to the Spirit have their
outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. 6
For the
outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the
Spirit is life and peace, 7
because the outlook of the
flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the
law of God, nor is it able to do so.
Present tense “is
not submitting”

17. 8
Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. 9
You,
however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if
indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if
anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this
person does not belong to him. 10
But if Christ is in
you, your body is dead because of sin, but the
Spirit is your life because of righteousness. 11
Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus
from the dead lives in you, the one who raised
Christ from the dead will also make your mortal
bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you.

18. Set your minds on the things Spirit,
not the things of the Flesh
• Galatians 5:13-16 (NET)
13
For you were called to freedom, brothers and
sisters; only do not use your freedom as an
opportunity to indulge your flesh, but through love
serve one another. 14
For the whole law can be
summed up in a single commandment, namely,
“You must love your neighbor as yourself.” 15
However, if you continually bite and devour one
another, beware that you are not consumed by one
another. 16
But I say, live by the Spirit and you will
not carry out the desires of the flesh.

19. Works of the Flesh
• 17
For the flesh has desires that are opposed to the Spirit,
and the Spirit has desires that are opposed to the flesh, for
these are in opposition to each other, so that you cannot do
what you want. 18
But if you are led by the Spirit, you are
not under the law. 19
Now the works of the flesh are
obvious: sexual immorality, impurity, depravity, 20
idolatry,
sorcery, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger,
selfish rivalries, dissensions, factions, 21
envying, murder,
drunkenness, carousing, and similar things. I am warning
you, as I had warned you before: Those who practice such
things will not inherit the kingdom of God!

20. Fruit of the Spirit
• 22
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace,
patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23
gentleness, and self-control. Against such things
there is no law. 24
Now those who belong to Christ
have crucified the flesh with its passions and
desires. 25
If we live by the Spirit, let us also behave
in accordance with the Spirit. 26
Let us not become
conceited, provoking one another, being jealous of
one another.